About ClaranetFounded at the beginning of the dot.com bubble in 1996, our CEO Charles Nasser had a light bulb moment to develop a truly customer-focused IT business. Since then, Claranet has grown from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK to being one of the leading business modernisation experts, who deliver solutions across 11+ countries.
At Claranet, we’re experienced in implementing progressive technology solutions which help our customers solve their epic business challenges. We’re committed to understanding their problems, delivering answers quickly, and making a lasting impact to their business.
We are agile, focused and experienced in business modernisation. Our approach helps customers make genuine, significant shifts in their business strategy, to deliver financial savings, boost innovation, and create a resilient business. We continually invest in our people and the latest technologies, so our customers get peace of mind knowing that they have access to the best talent and services.
In the UK we have over 450 staff working in London, Gloucester, Warrington, Leeds or as homeworkers.
Working For ClaranetHere at Claranet we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for and with our employees (yes, we really mean it).
We offer an extensive benefits package that you can tailor to your needs, inclusive of a matching contribution pension scheme, healthcare, insurance, dental, discounted gyms and app supported benefit access.
But what we think makes us different is ‘Team Claranet,’ our dedicated internal part of the business that supports you with matters close to your heart. We proudly support local charities in each of our office locations, support employees with paid charity leave, organise key charity fundraising event per year and have a dedicated committee responsible for supporting employee’s fundraising efforts.
Our VisionOur vision is to become the most trusted technology solutions partner; renowned for being the best and brightest, having lasting impact with our customers and delivering exceptional returns to our stakeholders.
Position SummaryThe Principal Customer Engineer (Microsoft) is a high-impact, hands-on technical expert who works directly alongside the UK CTO to provide customer-facing technical assurance and specialist input on complex opportunities and deliveries - primarily across the Microsoft technology ecosystem. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who wants to remain deeply hands-on, customer-facing and continuously learning, without moving into people management. The role supports customers and internal delivery teams by producing clear designs, guidance and practical technical outputs across Microsoft cloud, hybrid identity, security operations and endpoint management, and is comfortable using AI tools to accelerate analysis, documentation and delivery outcomes.
Role MissionTo support customer outcomes by making deep, hands-on Microsoft centric expertise available to customers and internal teams across hybrid identity, security and endpoint management. This includes Windows Active Directory and integration with Microsoft Entra ID, unified security operations with Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel, and modern endpoint and device management with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM/ConfigMgr), providing practical guidance, design assurance and implementation support where needed.
Objectives & Key ResultsDeliver consulting-grade architecture assurance and outcomes for customers
- Provide high-quality architecture reviews and design assurance for complex customer opportunities and deliveries, highlighting risks, trade-offs and pragmatic options
- Produce clear customer-facing technical outputs (e.g., current-state assessments, target-state architectures, and phased roadmaps) that accelerate decision-making
- Improve consistency and reduce avoidable rework for customers by using repeatable patterns, checklists and standards aligned to Claranet ways of working.
Provide customer-facing Microsoft expertise across identity, security operations and endpoint management
- Provide design reviews, technical assurance and practical guidance for on-premises Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID integration (hybrid identity, conditional access dependencies, device identity, and directory synchronisation)
- Support customer security operations design and optimisation across Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel (telemetry strategy, detection/use-case coverage, and operational playbooks)
- Advise on endpoint and device management approaches using Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM/ConfigMgr)—including co-management where appropriate—focusing on deployment consistency, compliance and update/patch posture.
Translate emerging technology into customer-ready guidance and practical materials
- Evaluate emerging technologies and turn findings into clear, customer-relevant recommendations (benefits, constraints, costs and risks) for adoption and integration
- Create lightweight customer-facing materials (e.g., points of view, reference designs, assessment templates and workshop materials) that support pre-sales and delivery
- Support customer workshops and technical discovery to validate requirements, shape scope and improve the quality of solution designs.
Improve quality, operability and resilience in customer solutions
- Strengthen baseline security and identity hygiene in customer solutions through guidance, standards and design assurance (e.g., privileged access practices, tiering, hardening standards, and secure hybrid identity patterns)
- Improve operational readiness for customer Defender and Sentinel deployments by providing repeatable runbooks, alert tuning guidance, and recommendations to reduce avoidable noise and gaps in telemetry
- Support improved configuration and patch compliance in customer environments by advising on modern configuration ment practices (ConfigMgr/SCCM, update strategies, reporting and remediation workflows)
